


Iris

by letterspacing



Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-23
Updated: 2010-12-23
Packaged: 2017-10-13 23:57:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/143099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/letterspacing/pseuds/letterspacing
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's so easy to touch the stars. All you have to do is fall.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Iris

Yagyuu is ten when he accidentally breaks his glasses; he has contacts, of course, but he doesn't like them so much and besides, nobody would recognize him if he wore them. He gives himself two options: to tell his parents and let them buy a new pair, or to make his own glasses until he saves enough to replace it himself.

Yagyuu is afraid of being punished by his father for his carelessness and possesses the confidence of a boy whose age has reached double digits. It is fortunate that the incident takes place on the last day of school and his father has been spending more and more time at the hospital. He buys soft contacts on his way home and commences his project.

 

 

The night Yagyuu finishes his glasses, he puts them on and the world rotates one-eighty degrees. He panics for three minutes, hates himself for fifteen, and when he calms down, he realizes that his brain will eventually adjust and flip what he's seeing right-side-up again.

Carefully, he makes his way to the garden, appreciates the feel of fresh air and scent of damp grass. His feet are planted firmly on the ground above him and the sky is a black sea of diamonds below.

It's so easy to touch the stars. All you have to do is fall.

 

 

The Switch is every bit as disorienting as his glasses. Being Niou involved seeing things the way Niou does, which is the opposite of the way Yagyuu sees it. And when he molds into Niou's world, switching back to Yagyuu is just as disorienting, but just like anything to do with Niou, he learns to get around it.

 

 

The truth is that there never really was a formal agreement about the Switch. This is how it goes:

Niou sneaks into Yagyuu's room one Monday morning (perhaps early morning would be more apt). Niou flicks on the lights and Yagyuu wakes up. He feels a pair of hands set his glasses on for him, and the first thing he wonders is if he's staring at a mirror.

"Hiroshi?" he hears. "It's me, your long-lost twin brother."

" _Niou_."

"Not today," Niou replies in a cheerful tone that doesn't match his face. "I'm Yagyuu."

"Then what does that make me?"

"Nobody. You can stay home today. Unless you want to be me."

Yagyuu watches the way Niou sits at the edge of his bed, so very Yagyuu except more _real_ , somehow. If there is a mirror between them, then Yagyuu is the reflection, visible only when both of them are standing face-to-face; only one of them can exist separately. Today, that is Niou--Yagyuu. Niou doesn't exist neither. Not now when he's Yagyuu.

Yagyuu doesn't believe in solipsism or the _cogito_. He respects Descartes for his contributions to mathematics, but not for his contributions to the study of man. He believes that existence is solid, tangible, universally accepted. He believes that existence is like a convex lens (the image is virtual but upright - the way it's supposed to be seen, even if it's a little smaller or farther). If people see Yagyuu in Niou, then Niou must be Yagyuu.

Yagyuu is selfish. He doesn't want to be just half of who he is. If people will not acknowledge him as himself, then he will be acknowledged as someone else.

 

 

Yagyuu sees words. When people talk, his brain transcribes what they say. Like subtitles. The Switch, for instance, is capitalized. But between Niou and Yagyuu, their names are completely spelled out in lower case.

Sometimes Yagyuu tries to recall what the world really looks like. It's beyond angles; Niou pulls everything inside out and creates a thousand new dimensions, all made of glass so everything becomes this cacophony of refracted light and illusion.

 

 

It is Niou's face that stares back at him as he puts on his contacts. He names all the parts of the eye in his head. By the time he reaches _iris_ , both sides of his vision are sharp and clear.

The iris, he thinks, carefully ruffling his uniform, Regulates the amount of light that passes through. _How much of Niou will you let in your life?_ interrupts a stray thought. It is wedged between parentheses.

(Is Niou the light?)


End file.
